Today, Matt is joined by Max Maxwell, an entrepreneur and wholesaler who is well on his way to being the owner of a multi-million dollar real estate investment company. He shares the secrets behind his quick success, the biggest mistakes he sees other wholesalers make, and his highly effective strategy for cold calling, and more. Hear it all on Thought Leader Thursday!

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Transcript:

Matt Theriault: Hello, I am Matt Theriault of the Epic Real Estate Investing Show. This is Thought Leader Thursday. Today I’m joined by an entrepreneur and real estate investor. He’s been involved in real estate since he was 21 years old, when he obtained his North Carolina real estate broker’s license. After a few years in selling real estate as a broker he became more interested in the investment side of things, a very similar story to mine. After studying and learning many methods of real estate investing, he fell in love with wholesaling. So he now owns a growing real estate investing company that has continued to grow, it’s up to almost six figures a month, he’s really crushing it. He’s still on the journey of obtaining his goal of becoming a multi-million dollar real estate investment company, but he’s well on his way. So please help me welcome to the Epic Real Estate Investing Show, Max Maxwell. Max, welcome to the show.

Max Maxwell: Matt, thanks for having me. It’s an honor to be on your show, brother.

Matt: Yeah, you bet, I’m glad to have you here. You know, before we get into wholesaling in your real estate investing business, I was curious of what people were doing just before they got involved in real estate.

Max: You know, I was actually in the marketing world, traveling with some of the top Fortune 100 companies, doing some of their experiential marketing. So I did that all across the country, and that’s kind of what I was doing right before I decided to make that turn.

Matt: Got it. What made you change? What made you choose real estate?

Max: You know, I was never that guy that could be employable, so it just wasn’t a longterm thing, and I was enjoying what I was doing, I was making decent money, but it’s just, I just wanted that freedom again.

Matt: And real estate presented that to you, of course.

Max: Absolutely.

Matt: When did you realize that, you know, wholesaling, this is my thing?

Max: When I was an actual broker, I heard about people doing it, and I never really looked into it because it just sounded stupid. You know when you’re a broker you don’t really have the full education of what real estate really is. I was definitely one of those brokers that didn’t venture beyond actual buying, helping people buying and sell property. So I’ve heard about it when I got my license before, and then when I decided to kind of look into other ways to invest into real estate, I started researching wholesaling and it just popped out to me. I say, “You know what, I’m going to give this a try.” And it came off pretty quickly.

Matt: How long has wholesaling been your primary strategy then?

Max: So a year and a half now, full-time.

Matt: Okay. Super, so if you’re up to almost six figures, you’re doing several deals.

Max: Yeah, we’re doing about 8-10 deals a month now in North Carolina. December was the first month that we broke six figures, and we’re looking to continue to do that here in January.

Matt: Hitting six figures inside of your first year for a month, what are you accrediting your fast success to?

Max: You only can do so much by yourself. Making $20-$30,000 a month was great, you know? And then I decided that I wanted to scale, because if I can do it by myself at this level, I need to scale. So that’s when I decided to just kind of create the trainings and stuff that I knew what I was doing, and then go out and hire some help, which I did with virtual assistance, and man, when I did that I had some growing pains in the first, but when I did that to relieve some of the tasks that weren’t making me money, it allowed me to do what I do tenfold.

Matt: Got it. So what were some of the tasks that you took of your plate first?

Max: Picking up and answering the phones. Just to listen and qualify and lead was very time-consuming. Sometimes it would be two or three people calling at one time and I just couldn’t ring in, so I couldn’t do it. So that was one of the first things I did, was that. Then I did a lot of my administrative tasks, pulling my lists and doing the repetitive stuff that had to be done every night.

Matt: Right, got it, yeah, that was something I scratched from my [inaudible 00:03:49] too. But you’ve got to do it, you know?

Max: Yeah, absolutely.

Matt:And you’ve got to take a little while before you can train someone to do it effectively. So you have to go through that process. What’s the biggest mistake you see people make when they’re getting involved in the wholesaling? Because there’s a lot of people really getting into it right now.

Max: You know, I don’t know who’s going around and selling it as a get rick quick scheme, but it is the complete opposite of that. I mean, there is still moments now I sleep four to five hours a day, and that’s with a staff of four people. So you know, one of the biggest mistakes I think people do, is that they get in some training program that’s a cookie cutter and they don’t actually learn how things work in their county and where they live, which I think is the root, the beginning of how to wholesale, you have to learn how your county does tax, how your county does foreclosures, how your county does things like code violations, and what’s the process, how it works. I think once you learn that process, you can start to build a business system around how your county works versus somebody that’s teaching you in California or Arizona or Texas. You need to learn how your stuff works.

Matt: Right, real estate’s local, right?

Max: Correct.

Matt: Yeah, and each market has their own little nuances and each county and city they operate differently, even the states operate differently, so I think that’s fantastic observation, great advice. Once you go from there, once you’ve got your local knowledge, what’s first? How should the business be approached? And what should the expectations be?

Max: You need to take some time and study the market, you know? Kind of understand what home values are. You know, what I see a lot of young wholesalers come into the market, I see what they’re doing wrong is, they’re putting properties under contract that are nowhere near a deal. What it’s doing is, it kind of gives a bad taste in sellers’ mouths, that you can’t perform on your contract, because you were just eager to get something out of a deal. Go learn under somebody first before you start pumping out, trying to get your own deals. I’m not saying you have to do it that way. But if you’re uncomfortable with the numbers, then learn from somebody. There’s another wholesaler in your market that’s doing a few deals a month, that will love to have you as somebody that’s there to learn.

Matt: Amen, that’s for sure. You can come over here.

Max: Yeah!

Matt: Right? What’s one thing else you wish you knew when you got started?

Max: You know, how important it is to build a good buyers list. You know, even though I’m the type of person that jumps into it, I had that beginner’s luck, the rookie season was great first month, I made 21 grand. But when you start to understand that buyers are very, very important to the formula of your business, you need to learn to grow that because, I’m telling you, once you have a good buyers list, you’re going to be able to sell properties at lightning speed.

Matt: What would you constitutes a good buyers list? Would you err more on the side of quality or more on the side of quantity?

Max: Quality, for sure. I mean, having a set number of buyers doesn’t mean anything. I mean, what I try to find is, you know, buyers … You know, when I started I used to go to the auctions and see people that were buying cash, you know, right here at the local courtroom steps. Those people I know have to perform in a week or 7 days they have to turn in that check or that cash, that money order, to the county. So I knew they were active buyers. And I was so confident in my skills that if they were buying from the auction, they should be able to buy from me at a cheaper price. That’s how I pitched to them, and says, “Listen, if you’re buying here, you’re buying too much. Just give me an opportunity to show you some stuff that I can bring you. What do you like?”

Matt: Awesome!

Max: Then when they tell me what they like, I say, “Listen, if I find 10 of these in the next couple of months, can you buy all 10?” And if they say, “Yes.” There goes your guy with half a million dollars.

Matt: Right, right, right, there’s your buyer.

Max: Yeah, there goes your buyer. You get 10 of those, you ain’t got no problem.

Matt: So to do the volume that you’re doing right now and to be able to find 10 deals for someone like that at the courthouse steps, you know, you’ve got to have a good lead generation system in place. What channel are most of your deals coming through these days?

Max: When I first started, I was doing mail and I would do it on my own printer. I would use some mail houses. But I don’t mail anymore, I haven’t mailed in over a year. So cold calling is one of my number one lead gen sources, and we’re consistent with it. I think that’s what people give up too quickly, they do anything and they don’t see success that quickly, they give up. So we cold call a set number of people every single week, it has to be done. We put out a set number of bandit signs every single week, it has to be done. When you build that rapport with sellers, even if you talked to them three months ago, you know how many deals I get that come back down the pipeline because of our follow up system?

Matt: Right.

Max: That’s what it is. You build it upfront, and then as you keep contacting these people, next thing you know, deals just roll and roll and roll. You know, I say if we’re doing 10 deals in a month, maybe four to five of them come off of just brand new people we talk to. The rest are just somebody we may have talked to the month before, the week before. You know, it just kind of trickles down.

Matt: The people that you are calling, is there a specific category you’re looking for? What type of people are you cold calling?

Max: Yeah, so in my county I learned how the tax system works down to a T. I know when somebody is at that breaking point where they have to do something or they’re going to lose everything, because we’re at tax deeds date. You know, that’s funny, I say that, a lot of wholesalers don’t know the difference between a tax deeds date and a tax liens date.

Matt: Tax liens date, right.

Max: Those things make a big difference, and once you learn how the county works, then you’re going to be able to say, “Okay, I know that at this time or this month they’re receiving this letter, that they’re the most motivated right now.” So we rapid call them when they’re in that time period. So you’ve got the tax, and then we have a vacant list, we’ve created a way to find vacant properties in our area that is very efficient, and I’ve never heard any other wholesaler do it. But, you know, it’s just thinking and just using your brain.

Matt: So your approach, you’ve kind of identified someone that’s delinquent in their taxes, you know exactly kind of where they are in the process and when their pain is probably peaked.

Max: Exactly.

Matt: What’s your approach when you call them? Is it more of a helpful nature? Is it more of a like, “You’ve got to get out of this” and panic mode? Or what? What’s your approach to that phone call?

Max: So we’ve tried several different methods, and I think one that works the best for us is not to mention that they’re in that financial stress, because it doesn’t make any difference, it probably makes them feel embarrassed. It’s just, hey, our cold call them and say, “Hey, you know, I’m calling about this house, don’t know if you own it or not, but do you have any interest in selling if you do own it?” And they’re like, “Oh, you know, actually I was thinking about it.” Bing, we’ve got them.

Matt: Yeah.

Max: That happens more often than you think. We just don’t mention that actual pain point, because we know it’s a fact, we don’t need to bring it up.

Matt: Yeah, it’s the same answer that I give when people ask me about the, “How do you talk to probates? I mean, you’re dealing with a death, and duh, duh, duh.” You don’t mention that at all.

Max: Exactly. It’s a random call. I know you may have called 700 people today, but to them that’s a random call.

Matt: Absolutely, absolutely. Max, hey, if someone wanted to get in contact with you or learn what you do, and about you, what would be the best way for them to do that?

Max: You know, I’m real active on Instagram. I think it’s awesome that I can just reach out and touch people and I can share a split second of my day. So Instagram you can find me, it’s @TheRealMaxwell. If you’re on YouTube, I’ve also been trying to be more consistent with YouTube and try to put out some content, you can just search Max Maxwell, and you’ll find me there.

Matt: We’ll find you there. Super, that’s how I found you.

Max: Yeah, man, I was stoked when you reached out. I was like, “Is this real or is this a spam account?”

Matt: No, no, it’s real. I don’t know how your Instagram profile ended up in my stream, but I was like, “Hey, this guy looks cool.” And went through your stuff, and you’re the real deal.

Max: Awesome, man, thank you so much.

Matt: Yeah, you bet, it’s who I like to have on the show is the real deal. So it was a pleasure, let’s do it again.

Max: Absolutely. When are we going to meet in person? We need to do that.

Matt: For sure, for sure.

Max: Absolutely.

Matt: Alrighty. Cool. Have a good one, Max. That’s it for today on the Epic Real Estate Investing Show. I’ll see you next week for another episode of Thought Leader Thursday. Take care.

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